1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a search support apparatus, a computer program product, and a search support system that support search for websites.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the remarkable spread of mobile phones and increases in the performances resulting from technical innovations, the mobile phones are used not only for verbal communications but also generally used for transmission and reception of e-mails or browsing of sites for mobile phones. In some models, installation of a web browser enables browsing of common web contents. Accordingly, the mobile phones fulfill roles as high-performance information terminals like a personal computer (PC) or a personal digital assistance (PDA).
As the mobile phones expand the roles as the information terminals to access a larger amount of contents like the PC, it is required that desired information can be easily retrieved from the large amount of information to easily reach target information, even on a screen of a limited input interface of the mobile phone.
Against this background, there are two main typical methods of performing search using the mobile phone to reach a target site or information. One of the methods is a directory search method by which a target site is retrieved by navigating a hierarchical menu prepared by content service, and the other is a keyword search method by which a keyword is inputted to a search engine to obtain a summary list of search results, and the summary list is referred to reach target information.
Various techniques have been proposed with regard to the search method. For example, the specifications of Japanese Patent No. 3759700 disclose a technique of searching for pointer information for an entity to be searched using a phrase that describes a use purpose of a search target, to improve efficiency of search for information desired by the user. JP-A 2003-208434 (KOKAI) discloses a technique of extracting a keyword from a designated hypertext file and searching for a location at which a content is registered using the extracted keyword, thereby easily finding similar sites. JP-A 2003-132060 (KOKAI) discloses a technique of matching a search input sentence and a prepared example sentence, requesting a search engine related to the matched example sentence to search for a keyword extracted from the search input sentence, and presenting a search result to the user, thereby lessening a burden of the search engine selection.
However, according to the directory search method, when the granularity of classification (hierarchical category) previously defined is too fine, the amount of operation required to reach a target site is increased, which makes the operation complicated. When the granularity of the hierarchical category is coarse, the number of sites belonging to a specific category becomes large. Therefore, the amount of operation required to find the target site is increased again, which makes the operation complicated.
Meanwhile, according to the keyword search method, when many results are displayed in a list as the result of the search, a limited display area of the mobile phone requires a much screen scrolling operation, and thus the operability is low. When a search word is additionally inputted to restrict the search results, much manipulation must be performed using limited input means of the mobile phone, which makes the operation complicated.
Furthermore, in the technique as described in the specifications of Japanese Patent No. 3759700, various phrases expressing the user's preferences must be registered exhaustively to enhance the search accuracy, which is unrealistic and lacks in practicality. The operation at the generation of the phrases as the search conditions is complicated. According to the technique as described in JP-A 2003-208434 (KOKAI), no specific operation by the user is needed, while only sites similar to a site of the designated hypertext file can be retrieved. Therefore, a site desired by the user may not be presented. According to the technique as described in JP-A 2003-132060 (KOKAI), sites are uniquely classified into specific fields based on the prepared example sentences. Therefore, the flexibility is low, and the sites may not be classified into fields desired by the user.